BravinLee programs

It is hell week for the art world. What used to be referred to as “Armory Week” is now a beast spanning more art fairs than anyone has time or energy for. Now that NADA has joined the fray, it’s likely going to be more stressful, but at least slightly less soul-crushing.

To help navigate this mess, we’ve picked out the week’s highlights: the art fairs you really should see, as well as gallery, DIY, and museum events to help recover from the convention center lighting.

These events include an artist talk from photographer Elle Perez at Daniel Cooney Fine Art on Tuesday, a peek at Georgia O’Keeffe’s personal style at the Brooklyn Museum on Friday, and the Silent Barn’s Paper Jazz Small Press Festival all weekend long in Bushwick.

Wear comfortable shoes. Bring aspirin. We’ll get through this together.

When Elektra KB spoke about animated GIFs at a panel we were on together at NYU, she told the audience she made a flying uterus GIF because she could not find one on the Internet. This is the perfect reason to make almost any art work.

She’s featured today as an artist we worked with to produce our online animated GIF show at Providence College—Galleries, Geographically Indeterminate Fantasies. The exhibition looks at artist who render full-realized environments, so naturally KB fit in. These are clearly imagined spaces.

The GIFs also reminded me of a review Michael Anthony Farley wrote back in September mentioning KBs show The Accidental Pursuit of the Stateless, at BravinLee programs. An excerpt to take you into the weekend.

But perhaps the passive politics of the left have thus far failed the most vulnerable members of society. Across town, at Elektra KB’s solo show, an embroidered banner politely asks, “Liberals: can we riot now? XOXO” There’s a palpable frustration in KB’s practice, which responds to the unfulfilled neoliberal promises of globalization and multiculturalism. As someone who already possesses a sort-of post-identity, she seems impatient for a world that still very much clings to borders, genders, and authority to catch up. KB spent her childhood between the notoriously unstable Ukraine and civil-war-ravaged Columbia. She now lives between Berlin and New York, and works primarily with migrant women and trans people. As her biography would suggest, KB seems to have no flag to call her own—except the ones she sews herself.

Far from the cold sleekness of the 3D-printed gun and polished video, KB’s work presents an alternate take on DIY production as a rallying cry for resistance. In xerox prints, hand-embellished fiber pieces with titles such as “The Otherness” and “Spatial and Gender Migration”, and endearingly guerilla videos; her craftsmanship is visible in an impressive array of media carried out with a somewhat anarcho-punk design ethos. These works feature unlikely combinations of pre-Columbian architecture, ominous female figures, and militant aesthetics that flirt between fascist and rebellious.

In Elektra KB’s solo exhibition at BravinLee programs and Mario Pfeifer’s collaboration with rappers Flatbush ZOMBIES at the Goethe Institut, artists literally take up arms in increasingly militant performances of “otherness”.

Now that we’re all back from our art-world summer vacation, looking at our schedules can be mildly panic-inducing. Have no fear, we have a syllabus to help you navigate one very hectic September week. Tonight, there are more openings in the Lower East Side than one can possibly see between the hours of six and eight. We recommend prioritizing Regina Rex and 247365, which will be opening a new exhibition space adjacent to their gallery at 57 Stanton. Thursday, head up to Chelsea for a new video installation by Christian Marclay at Paula Cooper, a solo show from Andrew Birk at Johannes Vogt, and a very-timely video piece about the alienation of migrant women by the multi-national artist Elektra KB at BravinLee programs. Friday night, there’s no one Manhattan neighborhood to call homeroom. Sprint from Printed Matter to White Columns to the BHQF’s Foundation University Gallery (FUG) for some new, up-close but not-too-personal in flagrante delicto scenes from the legendary Betty Tompkins.

Saturday afternoon, the must-see event is undoubtedly the Knockdown Center’s Internet Yami-Ichi, an informal marketplace for all things net-art related. AFC’s own Corinna Kirsch with Dylan Schenker will be releasing a zine encyclopedia of everything you need to know about the internet in 2015. Saturday night, there are openings all over Brooklyn, but we recommend heading to REVERSE for an evening of virtual reality escapism. Sunday, check out early drawings from queer filmmaker Barbara Hammer at Company Gallery, a thrift-store-themed show at Soloway, and a panel discussion on Snapchat featuring AFC alumn Matthew Leifheit at Signal. PHEW.

It’s September. It’s time for some art. This week, AFC is going to give it to you Shark Week-style with a preview of the first fall art openings, and every day we’ll give you a new preview based on neighborhood. We’ve chosen what should be good, and what should be on your radar. Today’s post: everything in Chelsea you should know about in the month of September.

After a few days at Art Basel Miami Beach, it's easy to forget that art doesn't always come in cubes. Museums and private collections offer some respite, but among the legion of Basel satellite fairs, only one dares break the mould: SEVEN. SEVEN's organizers – BravinLee programs, Hales Gallery, Pierogi Gallery, Postmasters, P.P.O.W., Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, and Winkleman Gallery, all from New York – have worked collaboratively, arranging their works in a flowing exhibition whose geography is determined less by funding and more by content.